"After Big Tesla Bet, Hertz Selling One-Third of EV Fleet"

[Bouldergramp]

https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/...lck7i6aa9ne&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Having rented a Tesla via Hertz and being an 11 year ev veteran, I can understand why they had challenges.

If you do not know how to operate and charge an EV, getting into the system of one at half or less charge in a city you may not be familiar with is a challenge.

While the Bolt and Niro I rented from hertz both had about 80% when I rented them, the Tesla was lower. Personally, to minimize driver angst, I think they should have the car fully charged at delivery.

 

[MasterFlier]

Having rented a Tesla via Hertz and being an 11 year ev veteran, I can understand why they had challenges.

If you do not know how to operate and charge an EV, getting into the system of one at half or less charge in a city you may not be familiar with is a challenge.

While the Bolt and Niro I rented from hertz both had about 80% when I rented them, the Tesla was lower. Personally, to minimize driver angst, I think they should have the car fully charged at delivery.

That's interesting because when you rent an ICE car the gas tank is full and expected to be full when you return it

 

[cornbinder89]

That's interesting because when you rent an ICE car the gas tank is full and expected to be full when you return it

Not around me at least, they make note of the tank, and want it back with the same amount. Leaves a lot of guess work, but they couldn't be bothered to fill between rentals.

 

[Daklein]

They should charge them overnight to full or 90%, would cost very little to do with L2 chargers, so they actually have range when rented. WTF?!, pick up a car that should go 200 or 300 miles and it can't make your planned trip and now have to spend time to hit a fast charger!? And should have a reasonable fee to recharge from whatever level you return it at, the $30 fee they have is bogus. Managed correctly, rental EVs could be ok, but those two items at least are shooting themselves in the foot. Maybe Hertz only bought them all for the initial $7500 tax credit.

 

[Yodrak]

On a road trip last summer in my Model S I ran into three people at SuperChargers who approached me for assistance charging their rented Teslas. They had been given no instructions on how to charge the cars. Or how to use the GPS to find chargers. Two had asked about charing but the rental agents did not know and could not answer their questions. All three were, in fact, successfully charging, they just didn't know it. Might be one reason that Hertz isn't experiencing the demand for EV rentals they expected?

One question that all three had, and that I couldn't answer, is how do they pay for the charge? I'm guessing that the cost was added to their bill when they returned the cars.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

They should charge them overnight to full or 90%, would cost very little to do with L2 chargers, so they actually have range when rented. WTF?!, pick up a car that should go 200 or 300 miles and it can't make your planned trip and now have to spend time to hit a fast charger!? And should have a reasonable fee to recharge from whatever level you return it at, the $30 fee they have is bogus. Managed correctly, rental EVs could be ok, but those two items at least are shooting themselves in the foot. Maybe Hertz only bought them all for the initial $7500 tax credit.

Challenge is that time between rentals can be as little as 20 minutes at larger locations.

 

[Daklein]

Challenge is that time between rentals can be as little as 20 minutes at larger locations.

I agree, it would be trouble for a rental company.

They'd have to do math and schedule time overnight for recharges, modify reservation system with more detail about what previous rental had been and how many charged vs uncharged cars are available. It would break their computers, require employees to learn about the cars and chargers, Tom Brady would have to learn about it, etc.

Some rental policy changes could handle it. Offer reasonable rental periods like 10 or 18 hours at a little lower cost to get more coming back in evening, or a bonus negative fee if brought back in evening instead of morning on a longer rental. They'd have concern about lost revenue on cars not rented while charging. Offer a lower or higher cost for a car that's already full, or one that's about half full. When most of the cars are rented due to high demand, more would end up being like now (probably half or less full on pickup).

It would be more detail for customers, but more would be happy with a car that starts out full and ok if not needing to charge themselves.